BANGKOK, Thailand — On Burmese TV, the nation’s military junta supplies free health care, pop stars croon for ethnic unity and citizens are called on to crush the U.S. radio network Voice of America. Welcome to election season in one of the world’s most oppressive backwaters.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Here, tucked among the grey stone walls of this 600-year-old university, in a modern, glass-walled building, is the world-renowned Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence — as up to date as a suicide bombing.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the other top U.S. officials who stopped by Mexico this week had nice things to say about President Felipe Calderon. Clinton used the same tone — in fact many of the same words — that high-profile Americans have used to describe Calderon in the past. She praised his courage and his fortitude. She made pro-forma promises about sharing the burden of the deadly drug war, beefing up institutions and guarding their 2,000-mile-long, shared border — indeed, a “21st Century Border."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — When Pakistani officials sit down with their American counterparts for a round of high-level talks in Washington today, they’ll be a demanding bunch. They’ll say that their armed forces have paid a heavy price to fight what many here see as America’s war, and they’ll argue that their country continues to bear the brunt of the war on terror with bomb blasts claiming the lives of Pakistanis nearly every week.